[LangIsAllWeNeed]

I really think the specifics matter a lot here. Is this just friend group being a little mean+him inconvenienced by apple ecosystem lockout or is he being targeted as bullying prey? I was bullied relentlessly as a kid. I was an easy and fun target, incredibly maladjusted, social skills of a rock and had no friends. I got beat up in bathrooms, manipulated and was told in a sincere way to kill myself almost weekly.

If he is a target of general serious bullying, you should try to coach to build a layer of social skills and emotional defense, they will find something else, telling authority figures or buying phone will not fix this, it will make worse. The sad truth is people aren’t bullied in serious/ chronic ways for no reason. The reason may only be that they different. But with difference comes a necessity to defend oneself, socially, physically, emotionally.

I hope this is just a somewhat regular friend group and they are giving him a hard time for group chat incapability or cheapshot dogging on android, then perhaps get him a used iPhone and make him sit through some more of your side loading type technical talks as repayment. Try to encourage him to not react emotionally to friend group teasing and to tease back in a smooth way.